Notes on Paraphrasing and Ethical Quoting

Understanding Plagiarism and Misinterpretation

• Original Instance of Misinterpretation: The discussion begins with an example from a mock essay where a quote, "These solemn donkeys breaking your little child's heart," was used. The original context of this quote referred to adults idiotic for putting an 11-year-old girl on trial for plagiarism, not that plagiarism itself was acceptable. The mock essay, however, took the quote out of context, attributing a meaning (of endorsing plagiarism) that was inaccurate.
• Importance of Context: Understanding the original context of a source is crucial, particularly in higher education, where sources can be complex and easily misinterpreted.
• Unintentional Plagiarism: This often occurs when a writer paraphrases by only changing certain words or phrases but maintains the original sentence structure. This is still considered plagiarism because the intellectual structure and flow of the original author are retained.

Effective Paraphrasing Techniques

• Goal: To capture the gist of the meaning of a source in your own words, changing both the sentence structure and word choice.
• Method for Paraphrasing: To avoid unintentional plagiarism, follow these steps:
  1. Read and Understand: Thoroughly read and comprehend the original text.
  2. Close the Source: Close the book or minimize the window containing the original text.
  3. Write from Understanding: In your own words, articulate what you understood from the text, without looking at the original. This helps ensure that your version is truly original in both structure and vocabulary.
• Practice Exercise: The session includes an exercise to paraphrase a given source text (an excerpt from an article) by rewriting it in one's own words, focusing on changing sentence structure and word choice while retaining the core meaning.

Analyzing a Complex Source Text (Helen Keller Example)

To demonstrate effective paraphrasing and understanding, a specific short excerpt about Helen Keller is analyzed:

• Understanding Difficult Vocabulary: The text contains words like "suspicion Strauch's pain," "Egloty Strauch's great pain," "butt of skeptics," and "sinister of idolaters." It's essential to look up or analyze these words if their meaning isn't immediately clear.
  • "Butt of skeptics": "Butt" in this context means a target of attack. So, Helen Keller was frequently attacked by skeptics.
  • "Sinister of idolaters": "Idolaters" refers to people who worship or admire celebrities/people intensely. In this case, she was adored or a figure of worship for some.
• Numerical and Factual Information: When paraphrasing, maintain factual accuracy, such as the number of times Helen Keller was "assaulted by accusation, doubt, and overt disbelief" (at least $3$ times) and the ages specified ($11, 23, 30, 52$). These numbers should not be altered (e.g., changing $3$ to "two plus one" or "more than two times").
• Mark Twain's Role: Mark Twain is presented as an "idolater" figure. He greatly admired Helen Keller, comparing her to historical giants like Shakespeare, Homer, and Napoleon, and predicted her "renown… would endure a thousand years." This example illustrates polarized public opinion about Keller (some loved her, some hated her, connecting to the "skeptics" and "idolaters").
• Prerequisite for Paraphrasing: The fundamental key to successful paraphrasing is a thorough understanding of the original text. Without correctly grasping the original meaning, accurate paraphrasing is impossible.

Ethical Quoting Practices

• Avoiding "Drop Quotes": A "drop quote" is a quote inserted directly into writing without any introductory context, often interrupting the flow. Example: "She was the butt of skeptics and the cynosure of idolaters." This is generally considered poor practice.
• "Sandwiching" the Quote: This term refers to the best way to integrate a quote smoothly into your writing, typically involving three parts:
  1. Introduce the Quote: Provide context or an introductory phrase. The easiest way to do this is to paraphrase the beginning of the sentence you intend to quote or use an introductory phrase (e.g., "According to Ozark,…").
     • Example: Instead of just quoting "She was the butt of skeptics…", one could write: "Helen Keller was often seen as 'the butt of skeptics and the cynosure of idolaters.'"
  2. Insert the Quote: The quoted material itself.
  3. Explain/Analyze the Quote: Follow up the quote with your own analysis or explanation of its significance (not explicitly detailed in the transcript, but implied by the "sandwich" concept).
• Modifications for Clarity and Grammar: When quoting, you are allowed to make minor changes for clarity or grammatical accuracy, provided the original meaning is not altered.
  • Brackets []: Use square brackets to indicate any words you have added or changed within the quote. The most common use is to change pronouns for clarity (e.g., if the original quote says "she was…", and you need to clarify who "she" is, you can write: "[Helen Keller] was…").
• Omitting Parts of a Quote: If you only need a portion of a quote and want to skip words or phrases in the middle, use an ellipsis ... (three dots) to indicate omitted text.
  • Example: If the original is "Her renown, he said, would endure a thousand years" and you want to shorten it, you can write: "Her renown… would endure a thousand years."
• Purpose of Modifications: All changes (brackets, ellipses) are solely to ensure clarity, smooth flow, and grammatical accuracy within your writing, not to distort the original meaning.
• Parenthetical Citations: Always include a parenthetical citation after every quote to properly attribute the source.
• Citing Secondary Sources: If you are quoting something that was originally quoted in your source text (e.g., a quote by another author mentioned within your source), your parenthetical citation should specify "quoted in" (e.g., "(Mark Twain as quoted in Ozark)").